Using the UK Government’s petition website.

Using the UK Government’s petition website.

If you have a cause that you want to get noticed by the Government then the UK Government petition website is the place to start. Using the website you can create a petition and share it so that you can gain signatures and prove support for your campaign.

If a petition gets 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a response.

If a petition gets 100,000 signatures the Government will consider the issue for debate in Parliament.

“Petitions which reach 100,000 signatures are almost always debated. But we may decide not to put a petition forward for debate if the issue has already been debated recently or there’s a debate scheduled for the near future. If that’s the case, we’ll tell you how you can find out more about parliamentary debates on the issue raised by your petition.

MPs might consider your petition for a debate before it reaches 100,000 signatures.

We may contact you about the issue covered by your petition. For example, we sometimes invite people who create petitions to take part in a discussion with MPs or government ministers, or to give evidence to a select committee. We may also write to other people or organisations to ask them about the issue raised by your petition.” (Source)

How to use the UK Government Petition website – creating your own.

Visit https://petition.parliament.uk/, scroll right to the bottom of the page and click ‘Start a Petition’.

It will take you to a page where you can think of a title for your petition, this should tell people what you want the Government/Parliament to do.

Note: If someone has already submitted a similar petition it might be rejected.

If your petition is about a new topic you will be taken to a page which will let you submit some additional information in order to help put forward your case.

What do you want the Government/Parliament to do?

Background information about your campaign.

Any additional information that might help.

You’ll then get to preview your petition, make sure there is no errors and that your argument is clearly presented.

Then the website will ask your for a few details about yourself including your name and email address.

Your name will be published on this petition as the petition creator. Other than that, they won’t publish your personal details anywhere or use them for anything other than your petition.

They will email you about your petition, and nothing else. You can unsubscribe at any time.

In order to cut down on spam the petition website asks you to initially get five people to support your petition via email. They explain exactly how to do this when you reach this stage.

The petitions committee will then review your petition and let you know when it is live!

There are only a few cases in which your petition may be rejected. Read them here.

How to use the UK Government Petition website – signing a petition.

Signing a petition is super easy and will help it on it’s way to reaching the goal of 10,000 or 100,000 signatures. You can search the ones that are already live here.

Once you have found the petition you would like to sign just click “Sign this Petition”.

You will be asked for your name, email address and postcode.

They won’t publish your personal details anywhere or use them for anything other than that petition.

They will email you about this petition, and nothing else. You can unsubscribe at any time.

You will receive an email with a confirmation link. Without clicking this link you will not have officially signed the petition, so make sure you do!

Have you had success with a petition? Or do you have any tips for promoting one and gaining signatures? Share your experience in the comments below!

This video created by UK Parliament explains Petitions in a little more detail.